1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved forage compactor and in particular to an improved forage compactor having at least one asymmetric wheel, an integrated stand and an improved connection system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Forage can be comprised of chopped corn, hay or other feed stuffs. Without the aid of compression equipment, a large amount of air is entrapped or contained within piles of forage. The air increases the rate of spoilage of the forage. It is therefore desirable to remove entrapped or incorporated air from the forage in order to increase forage quality and storage times.
There have been many methods developed over the years that seek to accomplish the goal of removing air from the forage.
One such method is a tower silo. Forage is vertically stacked in a tower silo. The vertical stacking takes advantage of gravity, which forces an amount of compaction as the tower silo is filled.
Another such method is a bag silo. Bag silos lay horizontal and are filled or packed mechanically with a machine. The bag silos are then sealed.
A further type of silo is a bunker silo. A bunker silo is driven over by a vehicle whereby the forage is compressed in order to remove the air before being sealed. The vehicle, which could be a vehicle with auxiliary weights attached thereto, can drive a wheel or an implement having multiple wheels over the forage. Two such implements are Faster Packer and Spanjer Impact.
While useful, these implements use wheel profiles that have lips that can lift forage during rotation instead of achieving a desired level of compaction.
The implements also require a stand to be transported for when the implement is not in use.
Thus there exists a need for a forage compactor that solves these and other problems.